I'm looking at either Sunday or Monday (the 19th or 20th). I'll be doing caches in the Portland area (I will be crossing over into South Portland, Westbrook, and Falmouth).

Any hints, tips, tricks, encouragement, discouragement? Cheer me on?

squirrelcache

07-15-2009, 09:59 PM

Plan your route thoroughly ahead of time, re-routing takes too much time. Don't spend too much time at each one, looking for something that may not be there. Don't travel very far to get em', on wheels or foot. The cover of darkness is a Great time to hit the muggle areas. Remember your timeline and stick to it, it's harder to make up lost ground. Do Not take off too late.......learn from others' experiences....... Have Fun along the way!

NativeMainer

07-15-2009, 10:31 PM

I'm working on the route planning right now. There's a nice concentration in Portland and the surrounding area that I haven't hit yet.

NativeMainer

07-15-2009, 10:38 PM

Oh, and some of the caches that I'm planning to hit are puzzle caches. I'm making sure that I solve the puzzles beforehand and mark them in my map. :D

Ekidokai

07-16-2009, 01:30 AM

Make sure you set up more than a hundred. Depending on your track record you may have to pass on some. Have a bunch planned out to make up for any that you have to pass.

benandtina

07-16-2009, 08:38 AM

Goodluck! I agree with planning out extra. Ben and I are doing the DeLorme Challenge and the best advice we've been given was from Hollora. She said to make sure we have extra caches planned for each map in case we end up with a DNF. We've had to rely on our backup caches for several maps :)

Let us know how your 100 go. At some point Ben and I would like to try this out, but I'm not sure if we'll get the chance any time soon.

NativeMainer

07-16-2009, 11:27 AM

I was definitely planning on the extra ones. Sometimes my success rate isn't all that great. :o

I've got a DeLorme street atlas of the Portland area. I've been marking out geocaches (and some of the puzzle caches that I can solve here at home). I'm also writing the route out on a WordPerfect document that should (in theory, anyways) be easy for me to follow.

I used to be a pizza delivery driver in Portland and South Portland, so I know some of the little shortcuts around town.

benandtina

07-16-2009, 11:59 AM

Does your GPS let you plan routes and optimally re-order them? I have a Garmin Nuvi 750 and it will optimally re-order up to 25 locations to give me the best way to hit each point. I've found that using that feature is usually a lot easier than trying to figure out routes on my own unless I have a specific scenic drive I'd like to take or something. Unfortunately, I don't know of any software that will do something similar :(

NativeMainer

07-16-2009, 12:31 PM

Right now all I have is a Garmin eTrex (the yellow one). I'm trying to save my pennies up for a 60CSX and maybe a Nuvi 200 series. But I also want a couple of camera lenses. First, our budget is a little tight, but things will improve a bit when we have a tenant for our empty apartment.

bsstacey

07-16-2009, 12:48 PM

Here's a good Traveling Salesman Problem solver for google maps: http://gebweb.net/optimap/
It can plan a nearly optimal route for twenty waypoints, do the best you can by hand then enter them into this thing twenty at a time with at least a five waypoint overlap. Write down the route, and follow it.

Spend no more than four minutes searching per cache. At the four minute mark get back in your car, regardless of how close you feel you are. Time is your enemy.

Plan a set of at least 150 caches. We had a success rate of 89.3%, we searched for 112 and found 100.

Try to search for the easiest, quickest caches you can. Don't plan anything harder than a 2.5 unless you have reason to believe that you will be able to find it quickly.

Have the phone numbers of a bunch of local cachers on speed dial, you may need a phone a friend.

Take food and drinks with you.

Have back ups of all of your data. While we were doing the Centum in New Hampshire Dan's Nuvi lost its mind, I had to reload all of the caches from my laptop...good thing I brought it.

Plan to be finding your first cache at sunrise, and bring some flashlights with you. It gets dark sooner than one might think.

Lastly: Have fun, we sure did.

fins2right

07-16-2009, 04:40 PM

Here's a good Traveling Salesman Problem solver for google maps: http://gebweb.net/optimap/
It can plan a nearly optimal route for twenty waypoints, do the best you can by hand then enter them into this thing twenty at a time with at least a five waypoint overlap. Write down the route, and follow it.

Spend no more than four minutes searching per cache. At the four minute mark get back in your car, regardless of how close you feel you are. Time is your enemy.

Plan a set of at least 150 caches. We had a success rate of 89.3%, we searched for 112 and found 100.

Try to search for the easiest, quickest caches you can. Don't plan anything harder than a 2.5 unless you have reason to believe that you will be able to find it quickly.

Have the phone numbers of a bunch of local cachers on speed dial, you may need a phone a friend.

Take food and drinks with you.

Have back ups of all of your data. While we were doing the Centum in New Hampshire Dan's Nuvi lost its mind, I had to reload all of the caches from my laptop...good thing I brought it.

Plan to be finding your first cache at sunrise, and bring some flashlights with you. It gets dark sooner than one might think.

Lastly: Have fun, we sure did.

I haven't tried yet and we have two locations sort of planned. Stud Mill Rd and Lewiston. I think this might be one of the best pieces of advice I've seen yet. :D

Sudonim

07-16-2009, 06:31 PM

If you have the time, do 101 or 102, in case a logging requirement isn't met or the cache owner disallows your log for one reason or another. Better safe than sorry...

dubord207

07-16-2009, 06:31 PM

Planning a route on the SMR is fairly straight forward. You won't have many issues bagging a hundred plus. These are great fun and it gets kind of addictive bagging a cache every three-quarters of a mile or so.

Lewiston, well, there are some supposed urban caches that are within 50 feet of where you park that you might not find. The Androscoggin River is an issue as well. You find a cache, log it, your gps says the next one is .13 miles away. Check your Nuvi. If that .13 miles takes 22 minutes to get to, then you're wasting time because it's on the other side of the river.

Planning is key. Brian, bsstacey put a lot of effort into our Centum thankfully, otherwise we would have been going around in circles.

Good luck if you try Lewiston and have a ball if you go to the new power caching center of the universe, ie, the Stud Mill Road!:)

shuman road searchers

07-16-2009, 07:35 PM

Having cached with bsstacey, I would recommend all of his advice. We were 16 hrs doing just 100! He spent a great deal of time figuring the perfect route and even if a cache appeared closer than the one we were after there was a reason for it.The route brought us back to it and saved us 1-2 minutes. Does not seem like much but if you did that 50-60 times! As far as the stud mill road goes.. gas gas gas!!! Can be an issue!

NativeMainer

07-17-2009, 08:31 AM

Unfortunately, it looks like I'm going to have to postpone my Centrum run for another time. I've done a fair amount of planning and I've found about 75 caches in the Portland area that are fairly easy to get to in order to complete my task. I've already cleared a bunch out in Portland, so that made the planning a little hard. :(:(:(

I won't give up, though. Tomorrow starts my two week vacation. I was planning for Sunday, but I'm giving myself a little more time to try some more planning and alterations to the plan. Geocaching is about having fun(mostly) and I was starting not to have fun in the planning. I do want to thank every one that chimed in with some helpful hints. I'll definitely keep it in mind.

benandtina

07-17-2009, 08:43 AM

Would you be up for putting together a team? Ben and I want to do the challenge as well but we're not sure when we will be able to. We were thinking Portland but since you have already gotten so many caches there we'd be open to another location. We do plan to do the Stud Mill Road run at some point this summer but would like to also do 100 somewhere else because we think they will be two different experiences... both of which sound like a lot of fun to us :)

The reason I suggest this is I'm all about the planning. Ben is really in to the actual caching but I LOVE planning our routes and figuring out how to get the most bang for our gas buck. I'd have fun doing the leg work and I'm sure Ben would appreciate caching with someone who is actually able to find the caches, haha.

NativeMainer

07-17-2009, 09:08 AM

I've heard of the Stud Mill Road series that Ekidokai did. And I heard his interview with Kacky. He sounded like he had a blast putting that together. I'd like to do it sometime, but I'm not sure when I can make it up to that area any time soon.

NativeMainer

07-17-2009, 09:10 AM

And yes, it probably would be beneficial for me to put a team together some time. I have this bad habit a lot of time of saying "I can do it on my own."

squirrelcache

07-17-2009, 11:07 AM

It's good to help others. I think it's also good to just get out there and learn through doing. So I apologize if my previous post didn't give away all the finer details of how to successfully do a Centum Challenge, based on two attempts yielding 80 & 152. From my experience...we learn less through listening/reading, and retain much more through personal experience. We all need to have our own moments of enlightenment...... ie. Ahhaaa, so that's how!!!

I took a stab at the Centum pre-SMR, and teamed up w/someone else that was in a similar situation as yourself. It's hard when you've cached out much of your local region. We had to travel So Many miles and reach for caches above 1.5s ....unfortunately we fell short of our goal. Having said that, we learned alot and hope to achieve it elsewhere. Oh and while we ran out of steam(20+hrs. caching) w/only two hours sleep...and despite all the harder caches we bagged...we were still on cue statistically for completing it. Win some.......lose some.....Gain Huge memories and experience. Have fun and see you out there!

Kaching Karen

07-17-2009, 12:28 PM

I am thinking of trying the Stud Road series by bicycle... yep, I like a challenge. I have looked for regulations on the internet about bicycles, but haven't had any results. I know that part of it is closed to motorcycles. It's about 75 miles which is a challenge in itself, and the heat.... dust.....
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, sounds appealing, doesn't it? :o

dubord207

07-17-2009, 07:57 PM

Di and I were wondering what KK might think about this series and doing it by bicycle. Well, certainly not in a day, maybe 2 or 3. Plenty of nice spots to throw down the tent. Do it on the weekend when the pulp trucks aren't out and about. Good luck!

squirrelcache

07-17-2009, 09:22 PM

The visit Maine website states this about bicycles/motorcycles on Logging roads....

Motorcycles and bicycles are not permitted beyond the staffed checkpoint
gates, even if they are just strapped to the outside of a vehicle. I've not seen any staffed checkpoints Anywhere near the caching part of the SMR. I certainly would suggest arming yourself w/flat tire options.

Sudonim

07-17-2009, 10:26 PM

The visit Maine website states this about bicycles/motorcycles on Logging roads....

Motorcycles and bicycles are not permitted beyond the staffed checkpoint
gates, even if they are just strapped to the outside of a vehicle. I've not seen any staffed checkpoints Anywhere near the caching part of the SMR. I certainly would suggest arming yourself w/flat tire options.

You would be OK with that regulation. No staffed checkpoints to pass on the SMR!

Ekidokai

07-18-2009, 01:03 AM

Di and I were wondering what KK might think about this series and doing it by bicycle. Well, certainly not in a day, maybe 2 or 3. Plenty of nice spots to throw down the tent. Do it on the weekend when the pulp trucks aren't out and about. Good luck!

Someone has done it on a bike pulling a trailer with a dog in it.

Kaching Karen

07-20-2009, 08:44 AM

Di and I were wondering what KK might think about this series and doing it by bicycle. Well, certainly not in a day, maybe 2 or 3. Plenty of nice spots to throw down the tent. Do it on the weekend when the pulp trucks aren't out and about. Good luck!

Laroch, his son, tat and I were talking about doing just that, this weekend. I think the question for this one would be "How many can you do in a day, by bike?" I've plot it out on maps and looked at the distance, it looks difficult.

We're going to wait until later when there are less moiquitoes and blackflies and it's a bit cooler. Yeah, the trade off will be less daylight hours. Oh well.